Football’s first ever transgender referee has laid bare how the sport saved her life and opened up on her fear she wouldn’t be accepted after transitioning.
Lucy Clark, 51, officiates in the Women’s National League and at men’s grassroots level and has become a flag bearer for the trans community in football after bravely deciding to make her transition public in 2018.
Having initially opted to turn her back on the game out of fear she would not be accepted or recognised after coming out, she was hospitalised with a heart attack. The health scare convinced her to embrace her identity and continue refereeing.
Feeling trapped inside her own body at a young age, Clark used football as a much-needed escape and has even admitted the sport prevented a suicide attempt.
Speaking to the Guinness World Records, she said: ‘If I didn’t have football, I wonder whether I’d actually be here.
